Gran’s thanks to lifesavers who raised alarm

Allan Elliott with Ann Wright and Dot Rowland (centre).

“THANK you for saving my life” – that’s the message from brain blood clot victim Elizabeth Rowland to those who came to her rescue in the nick of time.

The great-grandmother was discovered semi-conscious in her bungalow wedged between her bed and the wall having blacked out after a shower.

The 85-year-old, who was unable to move following her ordeal, was due to get picked up to attend a weekly Friendship Club based at Easington Colliery.

Had it not been for intuitive club members who found her, Elizabeth says she would not be here today.

Elizabeth, known as Dot, required life-saving brain surgery at James Cook University Hospital, in Middlesbrough.

Luckily club leader Allan Elliott, who ferries members in his car, had noticed Mrs Rowland wasn’t at the door waiting to be picked up as normal, on November 15.

After getting no answer, he ventured inside and, having eventually found her after hearing faint groans, Allan was able to raise the alarm.

Ann Wright was one of two club members waiting in Allan’s car and she went inside and triggered the warden response alarm and dressed Elizabeth and an ambulance raced to the scene.

Elizabeth, who lives off Pennine Drive, in Peterlee, was taken to the University Hospital of North Tees, but a scan revealed the clot and she was rushed straight to James Cook hospital for emergency surgery.

Elizabeth, a retired North Blunts school caretaker, whose husband Dick passed away 11 years ago, said: “My family stayed with me all night and all the next day, they didn’t know if I was going to pull through.

“If it hadn’t been for these two people I wouldn’t be here today.”

She spent two weeks recovering in hospital.

Elizabeth, who is mum to Susan Franks and Barbara Owen and has five grandchildren and three great-grandchildren, came to the Mail as a way of repaying Allan and Ann’s kindness, adding: “I want people to know how kind some people can be.”

Allan, 79, a retired bus company worker from the Chapel Hill Road area of Peterlee, said: “I think if I hadn’t gone into find her Dot wouldn’t be here today, she was in such a state.

“I thank God I got there, another couple of hours and it could have been too late – she was turning blue and absolutely freezing.”